Prisoners

Sam felt like she was in a dream. Well, it wasn't really a dream; dreams were meant to make you feel happy or nothing at all. This was more like a nightmare. A horrible nightmare where she'd been kidnapped by some deranged man on an unknown island in the middle of nowhere.

Mathias had obviously planned this out from the moment she'd run into him. Acting all nice and charming, bandaging her injured foot by the campfire, taking interest in her stories about Himiko Nēmisu... it was all a lie. Well, his interest in Himiko probably wasn't. God, how had she been so naive? When Ayden had arrived at their campsite Sam had noticed how jumpy she'd been around Mathias. It was only when the sixteen-year-old had drifted off to sleep that her body finally relaxed. Then not a mere minute later Mathias had pointed a gun at Ayden's sleeping head and threatened to shoot if Sam didn't come with him.

"No! What are you doing?"

"I advise you to stay silent, Samantha, if you want her to live," Mathias threatened. "Now, this is what is going to happen, you're going to keep your mouth shut and come with me."

Sam hesitated, but not for too long; she was being held at gunpoint after all, and her young friend's life was also being threatened. Brows furrowed, she looked up at the disgusting man. "And if I do, you won't hurt Ayden?" she asked.

"I won't harm her."

Sam had reluctantly agreed and let Mathias bound her wrists behind her back, all the time with tears rolling down her eyes. It was only when he'd led her down a small set of stone steps and through the woods to a large gate did Sam realize how wrong she'd been to trust him.

"You're too trusting... it'll get you killed one day," she had told her, but Sam had been too blind to take her word for it. And now she was mentally cursing herself, guilt-struck as a small group of armed men waited by the large door where Mathias greeted them all before ordering one to set up a large bear trap near the campsite.

"What! You said you wouldn't harm her!" Sam wailed, struggling in his grasp.

"And I'm keeping that promise," he replied coldly. "Set up the trap, then release the wolves."

One of the men disappeared and returned a few minutes later informing them that it was all ready. Somewhere off in the distance, Ayden had appeared to have woken up, as Sam and the others heard the American-Canadian girl calling out for her friend. But before Sam could even try to answer, a large gloved hand clamped down over her mouth and a gun was pushed in between her shoulder blades.

"Don't even think about it, Samantha."

Seconds later the entire forest echoed with the sound of Ayden's scream as she helplessly fell into the trap set out for her. Mathias turned and nodded to his followers. Sam had begged and pleaded, even with the hand over her mouth, all while thrashing out in some desperate attempt to stop the men as they opened the nearby cages where the savage beasts were kept. The last thing Sam had heard was the sound of Ayden's strained pleas and the howls of the wolves before someone smacked her around the back of the head and knocked her out cold.

When she'd finally come around, she was being carried over the shoulders of one of Mathias' savages as they walked through what looked like some kind of rusty shantytown. From there, she'd been led into some ancient Japanese palace that was built high above the shantytown. Navigating through corridors, the thugs had eventually pushed Sam into a small, dark room.

That was where Sam was now, hands no longer bound with two men standing outside, guarding the only exit. Aside from the pain in the back of her head, Sam was uninjured. The men had not mistreated her in any way and they'd even gone so far as to bring her a bottle of water and a can of cold soup. She presumed the Solarii must live off whatever food washed up with the various wrecks, as well as the animals that wandered the island.

The Solarii. Ugh.

The Solarii Brotherhood was the group Mathias was clearly the leader of. From what little Sam could gather, the Solarii was a violent cult of mercenaries and shipwreck survivors, that had established its own society full of insane jackasses who worshiped Himiko Nēmisu.

Of course, Sam still had no idea what they even planned to do with her, or why Mathias had taken her in the first place and not Ayden as well. She couldn't do much really, aside from silently cry to herself about Ayden's unknown fate and listen to the conversations her guards had with each other outside her door. More than often they appeared to be playing games of cards or chess to pass the time whilst talking about some fire ritual that Sam didn't like the sound of.

"Hey, you alright there?"

Sam yelped, startled; she hadn't known there were any other prisoners with her in the dark room.

"Gee, warn a girl," she muttered, trying to calm her pounding heart. She looked back, squinting her eyes slightly and found herself staring back into a pair of gray eyes. She then glanced away, and behind him and found out there were more people there. "Are you always this silent? God, you could give someone a heart attack."

The man chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I just came around and saw you."

"You were knocked out too?"

"Uh-huh. Though by the looks of it, we were knocked out harder... or I was... or they drugged us..."

"You're really an awkward-rendering person, you know that?"

"So I've been told."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Oh, right! I forgot to introduce myself, sorry. I'm Andrew Carson."

Sam blinked in surprise at the familiarity in the name, then introduced herself. "Sam Nishimura." She paused. "And Carson? That sounds familiar," she mumbled.

He looked at her with his pretty eyes and gave her a smile that was rather charming, despite the dirt and bit of dry blood on his face. "Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you knew about me," he said with a slightly bragging edge in his tone. "I'm an industrial genius, inventor, and businessman. Also a billionaire."

But she shook her head, brows furrowing slightly as she tried to ignore the grunting of the men behind Andrew while trying to remember where she had heard the name before. "No, that's not it."

"What?! How could you have not heard of—"

"Carson, shut up. No one care's about you being a millionaire."

"Billionaire, my good sir. And what do you mean no one cares?! Den-Den cares!"

Sigh. "There's a difference between caring and tolerating, Carson."

"And you would know that, Annie?!"

Another sigh. "How did Ayden even deal with you?"

Sam's eyes widened in realization. "Feral Force!"

All the men in the room with her stopped arguing and turned to look at her in surprise. How did she know about them?

"Aye, that's us, lass," said a young soldier with a Scottish accent.

Sam grinned. "You're Scottish guy!"

He blinked, taken aback by her forwardness, but also at the nickname. Only one person called him that—

"You know Ayden?" Andrew asked. Sam nodded. "How?"

"Well..."

Deeper into the woods, closer to the heart of the island, Ayden found herself stuck with Whitman who clearly feigned his concern at her injured foot as she hobbled back over to the makeshift campsite, before leaving to scout out ahead. Ayden was alone once more with nothing but her thoughts and the crackling of the fire.

As she sat down, Ayden noticed a leather-bound journal to her right that it looked an awful lot like the one Sam carried around. Upon further inspection, it was revealed to be the Japanese girl's, as she had written her name upon the top of the inside page. Trust Sam to leave her belongings lying around... unless she hadn't actually planned to leave this behind? Mathias could have taken her away before she had a chance to do anything.

Ayden shuddered. Don't think about that right now, Alex and the others are going to rescue her and then everything would be fine and dandy.

Turning her attention back to the journal, Ayden contemplated whether Sam would actually mind her reading it. It wasn't like they shared any secrets... right? Oh, wait. That would be unless you don't count the fact that Ayden never told her she was a super soldier.

Skimming through the first few pages, there was a lot of information about the first few days spent on the Endurance, including Sam's frustration at Whitman's diva tendencies and how excited she was to find out more about her ancestry. But Ayden also discovered that Sam had had a sort of premonition before they'd sailed into the Dragon's Triangle.

'Ayden's having a crisis of confidence, so for her sake, I'll keep up a happy face. But something about this expedition has been making me nervous, I have butterflies in my stomach. As we sail closer to the Dragon's Triangle, I'm starting to feel nauseous. And this isn't the excited kind nerves...'

Had Sam put on a facade all for her well-being? Ayden suddenly felt very guilty for what had happened to them both.

'What the hell is wrong with me? This trip is going to be awesome. I just need to shake off this feeling... Maybe I can convince Ayden to take a break and have a drink with me? Of course, it has to be non-alcoholic this time— she's still underage.'

The young soldier's lips twitched up slightly, almost smiling, as she thought back to that slightly happier time when Sam had dragged her away one night on the ship, and forced her to do tequila shots along with her and Alex. Only two of them, however, had gotten very drunk and had ended up with Alex puking over the side of the Endurance as Ayden watched on, with Sam laughing her guts out beside her. Ayden chuckled to herself before she continued on to the next entry.

'Ayden doesn't know it, but I've been shooting footage of her too. I really want to make sure she gets the credit she deserves, even if she probably won't be with us when this whole thing ends... And besides, she looks great on film. She's freakin', naturally hot for a sixteen-year-old and I don't think she even realizes it! The audience will love her, but not just for her looks. She's incredibly intelligent, more so than that jerk Whitman— a sixteen-year-old in the army!'

Ayden finally smiled slightly at the praise, though she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy at the thought of the word 'hot' being used to describe her, especially if it was not temperature-wise. Surely she didn't mean in the way Ayden thought she did... right? That one uncomfortable time with the Private outside of Andrews office was sufficiently nightmarish enough. An entry a few pages later answered her question.

'I know it's kind of lame, but I really wish Ayden would stay with us after this expedition. I have a big family, but I've never had a sister. Ayden's the sister I've never had and it would just be sad when the time to say goodbye comes. I wish it wouldn't have to... but she does have her obligations— it's bad enough we're keeping her from them.'

Ayden couldn't quite get her head around it all as guilt began to strike at her. She never knew she had quite an effect on people. Was it new? Had she always had that... gift? Was it even a gift? Sigh. For her to read all these journal entries about Sam describing the way she felt after having met Ayden...

Ugh, no. Stop it, Ayden. Now is not the time to be filled with guilt. Sam was missing and she needed to regroup with Roth. Because Roth would know what to do, and he'd be able to get them all out of this mess.

"Ayden! Over here! I found something!"

Whitman's voice in the distance reminded Ayden that he was waiting for her. She stood up and found that her foot didn't really hurt that much; it could have been a lot worse.

After encountering a few more wolves, which Whitman failed to warn her about, she made her way towards him, pushing her guilt to the back of her mind.

"Gee, thanks for the warning," she muttered sarcastically under her breath.

It turned out that the big gate Whitman was standing by was blocking their path and after strengthening her pry ax up a bit, both she and Whitman managed to work together to open it. They managed to make light conversation about the island and relics they encountered. Whitman suspected that the female figure that kept appearing was Himiko Nēmisu, leading to Ayden thinking he was channeling Sam. His suspicions were soon confirmed when they came to a small clearing with a seated statue; lit red candles surrounding its base.

"Incredible! It is Himiko!" Whitman boomed excitedly.

"But look... the bowl, the candles," Ayden stated, hovering her palm over the heat. "Why is she still being worshiped?"

"This island, it must have once been part of Yamatai! You were right Ayden!"

Ayden scoffed, clearly offended by his previous lack of credence in her. "Of course I was— wait..." she trailed off, brows furrowing for a moment before raising along with her widening eyes as she finally grasped what Whitman was saying. "The lost kingdom!" she gasped in surprise.

"It's like finding Atlantis! Oh, just think of the money we'll make..."

Ayden rolled her eyes. Trust Whitman to only be concerned with the fame and wealth aspect, and not the crazy island lunatics that we're running around.

"But this is real, Dr. Whitman; we're not standing on a myth."

"No, we're standing on a gold mine!"

And, again, Ayden rolled her eyes.

A twig snapped nearby and the pair turned round to see a strange man with a beard behind them. Whitman pulled out the gun given to him by Reyes and aimed it caught a glimpse of the pistol harnessed to his left thigh and instantly didn't trust him. The last strange man she'd encountered on this island had taken Sam, and she been damned if she didn't trust her instinct this time.

"Come quickly, your friends are hurt," the man said in a monotone voice.

"Yeah, probably by them!" Ayden warned.

"Get back!" Whitman ordered, flinging the pistol clumsily in his hands.

"They can't be trusted!" she hissed at him.

Suddenly another appeared on a platform in the trees above them. This man was armed with a bow and had it fixed on them. Whitman's face was filled with worry and uncertainty, unlike Ayden who knew that if it was her that had the gun, she wouldn't have hesitated to shoot.

"You still have a gun!" she reassured, but Whitman ignored her.

"I don't want any trouble. We'll come—"

Ayden gave him a disbelieving look. "What?! No!"

"But afterward, I insist you take us to whoever's in charge!"

"What are you doing?" she hissed at him.

"Be quiet," he snapped.

"No!"

"I'm handling this!" he insisted.

Ayden's pleas fell on deaf ears as Whitman held up his arms in surrender before placing his gun on the ground.

But she refused to give up so easily.

"No!"

She quickly drew her bow and was just aiming for the man's head before she was knocked to the floor from behind. In an instant, she was kicking and flailing her arms around to try to knock off her attacker, while Whitman pleaded with the men not to harm her. Eventually, Ayden was subdued and found her wrists being bound behind her back.

"Just... just go along with them, Ayden," said Whitman. She screamed in pain when her captor tugged a bit too hard on her slightly injured arm. "Do... do whatever they say."

Her attacker picked her bow off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. She heard him mutter something in Russian to one of his compatriots, though she couldn't understand it well as she still wasn't fluent enough in it. And then he yanked at her arm, forcefully dragging her away from Whitman. She cringed slightly as his scent filled her nose; the man stank of filth and something else that Ayden didn't want to guess at as he leered at her tank top covered chest.

He took Ayden to another clearing in the forest, where they were keeping three workmen from the Endurance prisoner, and two others who were on the ground unconscious; Ayden recognized one of them as Stewart, who'd been close friends with Roth, though she felt her stomach twist when she caught sight of two unconscious figures that seemed oddly familiar to her. However, she could not get a good look at them as they both had their backs to them; the least she could figure was that one was female, and the other was male, though they were both from the army. That tightened the knot in Ayden's stomach.

She began to struggle again, trying to get out of his grip, though it was no use; the substance Hamid had injected her with was still flowing through her system.

"Who are you people?" she demanded. "What do you want with us?"

"Silence!"

As she was pulled along, Stewart called out, "Ayden!" as he tried to run over to her, only to be knocked to the ground by one of the thugs.

Before she could react or say anything though, her captor spoke up in English to his accomplices. "If they give you any trouble, kill them!"

She huffed. "No! Don't hurt them... please!" she pleaded.

Her captor turned back to her and shoved her slightly against a tree trunk. "I said, silence, girl!" he glowered, his voice thickened with his Russian accent.

She was terrified; the man was intimidating and stood a good foot or so above her height. Ayden was even more horrified as he trailed his rough sweaty hand up her arm and shoulder, pausing lightly to caress her collarbone, sneering at her in his native tongue. In a futile attempt, she tried to move past him but failed as he easily intercepted with his arm, and moved in closer to her body. She wanted to cry as she remembered how she had nearly been raped back in Mongolia.

"Let go of her! Let go of her!"

Ayden wasn't entirely aware how they managed it, but Stewart along with the other two broke free and began running away. The Russian's attention was quickly focused on them.

"Ayden, run!"

Everything happened so fast, yet so slow, then the next thing she knew, her companion was telling her to run, right before being shot in the head by her captor.

Her eyes widened as she watched his body fall limply to the ground. "Oh, no! No!"

Her scream made the two unconscious figures wake up with a start. They both groggily turned around to look at the source of the familiar scream, though they were unable to see much as the Russian leader began shouting commands and a few of his compatriots moved in front of them, blocking their view.

"Round them up! Round them up!" her captor yelled, his lackeys running on his command. He then turned to Ayden and gave her a swift, powerful backhanded slap across her face. "Don't you fuckin' move," he warned, pointing his gun at her for a moment, before turning back to his men and walking away, leaving her on the ground. "Kill them all!"

Shit, she was in big trouble.

If she stayed where she was, Ayden had no doubt that the Russian would return and do god knows what with her, especially since she had no one to help her this time as Charles had helped her with William. If the way the bastard felt her up was anything to go by, she definitely didn't want to remain here. Ayden needed to escape and find Roth, and the only way she could do that is if she sneaked past the guards. Her hands were still tied, so if she was caught, it'd be game over.

"Hey, bring up the prisoner!" one of the men shouted.

Don't make a sound, she thought to herself.

Quietly, she crouched down behind a nearby wall and moved up alongside it, hoping the guard on the other side wouldn't spot her with his flashlight. Luckily, he began walking down the path to where she had been stood by the tree, leaving her with a chance to move out of cover and further up the hill.

Strangely enough, Ayden was reminded of the time on board the Endurance when Alex had suggested she play some video games with him, much to her delight. One game, in particular, stood out for her right now. What was it called again? Assassin's Deed— Creed? Well whatever its name was, Ayden did remember that it was all about stealth and that the character on screen often needed to stay out of sight and sneak past people. This was something she needed to replicate right now as she narrowly avoided an oncoming guard by slipping into the remains of a ruined building.

"Hey, keep an eye out! The girl's missing!"

Or she could just run for it and hope to not be shot at.

Sigh. Well, it really was only a matter of time before they realized anyway. And if Ayden didn't move soon they'd no doubt find her in there; she just needed to keep moving. Ayden carefully ran up a set of stone steps and snuck in between the busted wooden door to a more sheltered hut. She must have only been in there for a few seconds when she heard the familiar voice of the Russian nearby. Shit.

He walked right past the gap she slipped through and Ayden held her breath.

"No one escapes," he stated before she heard the click of a gun. He'd found her. "Out! Get out of there, stop wasting my time!"

Ayden had no choice to comply. The second she stepped out from the shelter, his hands were on her, gripping into the skin on her neck.

"I always find them," he boasted before his hand began to slide down Ayden's left side. He chuckled lowly and began to murmur in Russian once again. "Вы хорошо выглядит, не так ли? Вы напоминаете мне о моей сестре." (You are good looking, aren't you? You remind me of my sister.)

He was just about to grab her hip when Ayden fought back by kneeing him in the crotch. The sleazy man doubled over in pain and Ayden saw a window of opportunity to get away. Unfortunately, the Russian caught her arm as he quickly regained his composure, and flung her back. This time, he pushed himself full flush against Ayden, pinning her shoulders to the side and began to nuzzle her neck with the tip of his nose.

"Она также была сука." (She was also a bitch.)

The young weakened soldier shuddered as she felt his breath on her ear.

Wait! That's it!

Huh, so much for taming the new animalistic side Hamid had given her.

Without warning, Ayden sunk her teeth into his ear and pulled on it hard, nearly ripping it off. The Russian hissed in anger and he jolted his body away from her. In response, Ayden frantically ran forward and collided against him to knock him off his feet.

The gun that he had been wielding flew in the air and landed a few feet away from them both. Miraculously, Ayden somehow managed to loosen the bonds on her wrists as she made her way to the firearm. She grabbed it and turned around ready to fire, but much like before with the wolf, he was already upon her, trying to pull it from her grasp. They wrestled with it furiously, until Ayden managed to overpower his strength to the barrel of the gun towards the Russian's head. Without a second thought, she pulled the trigger.

With a loud bang, the bullet tore through the man's skull and exploded out with blood and bits of brain everywhere. At the same time, his body was flung back off of Ayden with the sheer force and landed with a thud. Ayden remained frozen to the spot, covered in his blood with the gun clutched tightly in her hands as the Russian drew his last breaths. A few seconds later, the realization began to sink in that she had just killed someone. It wasn't new to her, but every time she took a life, she felt remorse a while later. This time, no matter how bad the man had been, she felt it instantly as she realized she'd taken a life, and it had been so incredibly easy.

Killing had become an easy thing for her to do.

Her stomach lurched and she quickly turned to the side as her stomach emptied its contents, most of it being blood, which only shook her up more. Shaking, Ayden couldn't help but begin to cry at what she'd done, though also at what could have happened had she not pulled the trigger.

"Oh, God," she sobbed as she risked another look at the corpse she'd created.

Ayden eventually took a moment to compose herself once the tears had stopped. She needed to keep remembering that the Russian man was evil. He'd ordered his men to kill, and he would have very nearly killed her had she not fought back. Ayden had to remind herself that it also wouldn't be the only time on this island that she'd need to take a life, nor outside of it.

She was alone at the moment, but the rest of the men were still looking for her, and she wasn't out of danger yet. Some kind of Mountain Temple loomed ahead and judging by the noise and flashing of torchlight the guards were too. Ayden needed to pull herself together. She was going to make it to Roth, and she'd be damned if she'd let anyone stand in her way.

With a renewed purpose, Ayden retrieved her bow and pistol before heading in the direction of more danger.

Back in the room where Andrew and the Feral Force were locked up with Sam, they all sat quietly, a few looking around for a way out, though all while listening with the others as Sam told them how she met their Captain.

"Well, I was on an expedition aboard this ship Endurance. Our goal was to search and find the lost kingdom of Yamatai. We found Ayden by mere chance when we had to take a pit stop to refuel the ship and whatnot. We found her half-dead by the docks on the outskirts of Mongolia. We took her in with us and after she woke up, and we got to know each other a bit more; then she volunteered to help us with our search."

"And you said yes?!"

She shrugged slightly and gave them all a sheepish look. "Well, we were kind of hesitant at first, especially when she told us about being in the army; we didn't want to keep her from her duties, but then she went all out about how it was the least she could do for 'saving' her life, and then she burst with ideas for the expedition, and that caught Roth's eye, and then—"

"Who the heck is Roth?"

"Andrew!"

"Sorry, carry on."

"And, well... she had valuable reasons. Every time we asked her if she was sure about wanting to come with us— I mean, we always let her know how we could stop anywhere to make a call directly to your military base... if that were even possible, but she always had the same excuse."

"Which was?"

Sam sighed. "I already told you. She'd always tell us that she owed us for 'saving' her life. And then she would go all about how her skills would be very helpful to us, and Roth and Grim agreed with her because she'd say how more tactical skills would make the expedition shorter, and it would be a win-win, because we would get what we want quicker, and she would be able to get back to you guys sooner."

"So, she didn't forget about us," said another one of the soldiers.

Sam shook her head with a small smile. "Whenever we got her to talk about herself, she would always talk about you all. You're like a family to her."

The soldier smiled. "Well, she's like our baby sister... well, besides Elena. She's the real baby."

"Elena... Ayden told me about her," said Sam. "Isn't she with you— I mean— I assume... well, she's part of the unit, right?"

Another soldier— an Asian one— nodded. "Her brother too. They were both with us when we landed and settled for the night, but they disappeared. I think they were taken too. But, they're not here, so they must've been taken somewhere else."

"Lass," said the Scottish soldier. "When was the last time you saw our Captain? Is she alright?"

Sam's eyes widened as she remembered. She brought a hand to her mouth as she fought back tears. "I don't know," she shook her head. "I ran into that Mathias guy, and Ayden joined us later on." She groaned. "God, I'm so stupid!"

"What? Why? What did you do? What happened? What did you do? Did I already ask that? Where—"

"Shut up, Carson!" the Feral Force yelled in unison.

The guards outside banged on the door. "Hey! Quiet in there!"

Sam sighed. "I was too naive," she said.

"Let me guess," said Andrew, his usual slightly arrogant tone softening. "She told you that trust can get you killed, and you still trusted what's-his-name guy."

Sam tilted her head to the side as she regarded him with surprised and curious eyes. "Well, sort of... yeah. She didn't say it exactly in those words, but close. How did you know?"

He chuckled softly as his eyes darkened in a way none of the soldiers from the Feral Force had ever seen. "Let's just say I witnessed her say that to someone rather close to me." He sighed. "And as usual..."

"She was right," Sam finished.

Andrew nodded solemnly as his eyes became distant. Ayden had indeed said trust could get one killed before; she had told so to Marinescu before the explosion, which caused his death. He was too trusting on his work, and how the formula would work. At the time, Ayden knew what his goal was, and, though she did not know the specifics, even less understood the formula and whatnot, she had clearly said how she did not trust the outcome.

"I don't know a thing about chemistry, or whatever you're using to make this stuff— heck! I'm a prodigy, and I suck in simple Algebra! But, honestly, I don't think that mix you're planning on doing is right."

"Carmen, my work has been a success for far more decades than you have lived. I trust my work, and I trust this will work just fine."

"It might work fine if you at least did a prototype beforehand, Marinescu! But you're doing it right out on the point."

"I have faith in this, Carmen, so trust me. It will work just fine."

She groaned, then shook her head while muttering, "You're too trusting... it'll get you killed one day." She then sighed. "Look, I'm not saying I don't trust you, because I do. But trust, whether it's in a person or thing, it has to be earned. I'm sorry to say this, but I don't trust this experiment. It might turn out completely amazing, but not at the time you're doing it, nor the way you're doing it."

"Carmen—"

"At least consider doing some more tests— drafts before you put it to the point."

He never even got to answer her because, in the next second, just as Ayden had predicted, the experiment took a wrong turn and exploded. Ever since, Andrew never doubted her judgment. Sure, she was younger than himself and he should rely on his own experience rather than the judgment of a sixteen-year-old, but Marinescu, a middle-aged man with thrice the experience than both of them together, had overlooked her advice and look what happened. His experiment failed... well, not really— they did get a super soldier out of it after all, but it was literally accidental, and Marinescu died shortly, never getting to see the beautiful outcome.

"Mathias had his men put a bear trap for her," Sam said quietly.

"What?!"

She nodded. "And he sent wolves too." She let out a shaky breath as she wrapped her arms around waist, hugging herself. "I heard her screaming," she chocked out. "I don't know if she's... if she's—"

"She'll be fine."

Andrew glared. "And how would you know, Turner?"

He sighed. "Andrew, you've known her longer than any of us; you should know by now that a bear trap and a pack of wolves won't stop her."

The Asian soldier nodded. "Anthony's right. Remember when she came to save our asses?"

The other soldiers nodded, and the dark-skinned one spoke up. "Our gal crashed that last chopper and survived that with a wild hunger for ice cream."

Anthony grinned half-heartedly, nodding in agreement. "She's a survivor. So are Shorty and Damian. They'll be fine. We just gotta focus on finding a way out of here, so we can find them then, and leave."

Sam was about to speak when one of the guards outside spoke up, grabbing her attention, along with thus of Andrew and the Feral Force.

"Did you hear, brother?"

"About what?"

"About one of the survivors from one of the latest wrecks!"

Survivors from one of the latest wrecks? Surely they must be talking about from the Endurance? Sam hoped they were. But wait! They did say 'one of' and they did pluralize wreck... was it possible that there was already another wreck? Stupid, of course, it was possible— the Feral Force was here!

"They must be talking about one from your ship," Andrew muttered. "We just recently got here. Plus, I doubt it would be Elena or Damian. When Ayden isn't around, those two are almost as inseparable as Ayden and Elena."

Sam let out a shaky breath. "There's something wrong with this island," she said before they all turned their attention back to the guards.

"What about them?"

"Are you shittin' me? You haven't heard?"

"No, I've been guarding this door ever since Mathias brought the girl here. Just fuckin' tell me already."

"Vlad is dead."

"Holy shit, are you kiddin' me?" Pause. "Man, the others are not gonna be happy."

Sam couldn't really picture any of the Endurance crew or officers killing anyone. But then again, she supposed Roth, Grim or Reyes all could do the deed. What with Roth being an ex-marine, Reyes an ex-cop and Grim being... well Grim.

"Is it Ayden? Is it?" Andrew wondered in a whisper. "It's gotta be Ayden. Please tell me it's Ayden. Plea—"

"Andrew!" they all whisper-yelled in unison.

"Sorry!"

"But wait, brother, there's more. The survivor? It's a fuckin' girl no older than sixteen. And not only did she kill Vlad, she took out our entire team he'd had up there with him."

"... it's Ayden."

Back near the clearing, were to the two Shostakovitch siblings; they were hiding from the Russian mobsters, or whatever they were— they only knew they were Russian because they were speaking in their mother tongue.

"Damian," Elena whispered. "I think that was Ayden."

"The girl that ran off?" Elena nodded. "But did you hear the sho—"

"Don't. If she's survived up till now, then she's still alive," she said.

Damian looked at her for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "We're gonna find her." He peaked out from the shadows at the rushing Russians. "You got your stuff back?"

"Yeah," she whispered.

"Alright, let's go."

"No! Not yet. They'll catch us. We may have better weapons and trained with a super soldier, but we're outnumbered. We gotta wait until they've cleared out. My scouter's still functional, so we'll find her through it."

"Alright," Damian replied. "Let's go a little deeper, at least, so they don't see us."

When Ayden left the harrowing scene, she felt a bit relieved as she not only had her bow back but she also now had the semi-auto pistol she had used on the man who'd tried to force himself on her. However, she wasn't as lucky as she seemed to be; she had no arrows and the bad guy had left her with no ammunition. So for now, she was still effectively unarmed and had to rely on her stealth.

As she walked further through the darkness lit by fire flaming around, she noticed there were still many bad guys down in the low area in front of a burning building, so, to avoid that area, she, instead, followed a path up a hill on the left. She crossed a wooden bridge and continued up the steps to the left, where she then moved under the decorative arches at the top of the steps. As soon as she reached the top, she glanced around, becoming more cautious by the second after she noticed a dead body lying limply on the ground. Her eyes lit up a bit when she noticed an ammunition clip beside the unfortunate victim. She slowly stepped forward, beginning to approach it when, suddenly, an arrow flew in, shooting through her left arm, emitting a pained gasp from her.

She quickly ducked to the ground and took cover behind some crates nearby, only peaking through the small space in between them to see her attacker. There were two of them, both archers. She hadn't been as stealthy as she thought, so obviously, they had spotted her. Gripping her arm in pain, she glanced over at the ammunition clip; it wasn't so far away, but, at the moment, it felt as though it was.

She waited for a few moments until the shots temporarily ceased. She took the opportunity and quickly stretched her uninjured arm and grabbed the ammo clip, shoving it into her pistol. Once her gun was loaded, Ayden peered through the crates and saw one of the archers on the left hunkers, hiding down behind one of the crates. She chose to ignore him for the moment, and focused on the one on the right who moved around to flank her. She quickly aimed her pistol just above the top of the crate to her right, and when he peeked out, she shot him before turning to shoot the other guy who had chosen that moment to emerge from behind his crate.

Once she'd taken care of both of them, Ayden glanced around and sighed when she noticed she no longer needed to crouch behind cover as there were no more enemies around. She went on forward, trying hard to ignore the burning sensation in her throat as the smell of blood filtered the air, and looted the bodies of the two men she had just killed to get bullets or arrows, both if possible. After she did so, she went on but stopped for a quick moment when she noticed a box of pistol ammo near one of the wooden crates.

"Oh, Jesus, thank you," she muttered before continuing on her way.

She thought of going back down the hill, but the way back there was now blocked by flaming debris.

She huffed, running a hand across her face. "Great! Just... great..."

She turned back toward the only building that wasn't in flames, and sighed; she would have to go through it. Putting her pain to the far back of her mind, Ayden climbed up the steps to the building at the end of the open area and used her pry ax to force open the ornate wooden door. When she got it open and stepped inside, more bad guys arrived and attempted to burn the building with her inside. Crossing the room, she found a boarded-up opening in front of which she crouched and quickly kicked to bust open. She did so without hesitation as she knew if she waited for even a second, she would succumb to the heat and smoke, never mind her being a super soldier.

Once outside again, she followed the balcony she landed on, around to the right, and jumped across another gap, then continued around the side of the building. On the path ahead she found another box of ammo and a little farther along, a food cache and some arrows. She grabbed them, then continued along the path. However, once she neared the end of the path, she quickly went into a stealthy crouch behind a wooden wagon, when she noticed a flashlight flashing up ahead. She knew if she used the pistol, she would only attract more attention as the firearm was rather loud. So, instead, she brought out her bow and grabbed an arrow from her quiver, and peered out just enough to target the man on the ledge ahead.

She didn't like the idea of killing him, never mind him being a bad guy, but she was in one of those "kill or be killed" situations. That was the only way she was going to survive in that island. That was the only way she was going to survive anywhere.

She was a soldier, after all.

Aiming for his head, she pulled on the arrow, then released it. If this had been a video game, she would've been rather proud of herself as it would have been the best virtual silent kill performed with a bow. However, this was real life, and she couldn't help but be disgusted with herself. She would see these men as monsters for killing for no reason, but she was no better. Even if it was to survive, she was killing all the same. She was just as bad as they were.

Sighing, she straightened from her crouch and rushed forward toward the corpse and looted it, to see if she found any extra ammunition or anything useful. When she found nothing she needed, she scrambled up the wooden wall onto the ledge where the bad guy was and followed the path to the right. When she came to the edge, she jumped across a gap and quickly grabbed onto the wooden structure ahead. She climbed around to the right and then up to the level above. Once she was on her feet, she walked forward, carefully though, since there were two enemy archers up there.

Crouching behind a crate, she brought out her bow once more and take out one of the men with a silent headshot. The other one noticed when his comrade fell, but Ayden acted far more quickly then he did and shot him before he could do anything about it. A ladder, then, suddenly dropped from the cliff above, and a third enemy soldier started to climb his way down. However, before he could make it all the way down, Ayden quickly shot him as he descended, and he fell to his death. Straightening from her crouch, she made her way to the bodies and checked to see if they were still alive as she had remembered in some of her previous missions with her dearest Feral Force, there had been cases where they had made some deadly shots, and yet their target survived and they had to kill them more closely.

Let out a small, slightly relieved breath when she found no pulse in either of them, Ayden moved for the ladder and began to climb it. As she climbed her way up, Ayden was startled by the sudden sound of static, though she was quickly overcome with relief when she heard Roth's voice emitting from her two-way radio.

"Ayden, are you there?"

"Yes!"

"I can see smoke coming from the old ruins— are you okay?"

She swallowed hard. "Oh, God... Roth, I'm in trouble." A shot echoed through the night. "They're killing people."

"What? Who?"

"Men... I don't know why... they might be mercenaries, but... I don't know. I've never met any before, so I wouldn't really know." Her breathing hitched slightly. "I had to kill some of them. I had no choice..."

He sighed. He knew she was a soldier, but it had been clear since they'd first met that she didn't like having to kill, even if it was just to survive; she was far too empathetic. "That can't have been easy."

She let out a shaky breath as she neared the top of the cliff. "It's scary just how easy it's become." She heaved herself up the stone ledge and sighed in exhaustion. "You've got to warn the others, Roth."

"Don't worry about them right now. You just do whatever it takes to get to me, Ayden."

She sighed. "I'll try."

Fate must really hate me, was, however, the next and last thing she was able to think as she received a hard jab in the back of her head before she even got the chance to stand on her feet.

'Game over' finally came.

The Shostakovitch siblings hadn't managed to get as far as they'd hoped, either, as they were soon knocked out again and taken captive.

As the spots of black began to fade from Elena's vision, she became acutely aware of the memory where she was being slammed into a tree by one of the ugly enemy soldiers. No, this wasn't an old memory, it was a recent one— as in 'a few hours ago' recent.

She groaned as she woke, finding an annoying throbbing persisting at her head as if someone was relentlessly knocking on it. She hoped that it went away, but she was beginning to imagine the exaggerated, cartoon version of a lump on a character's head.

"Elena?" she heard someone whisper as she rose from the forced slumber. She groaned again, an involuntary response to her system trying to force itself to slip out of unconsciousness. Where the hell was she?

"Knock... knocked me out cold," she mumbled, unaware of what she was saying as she rubbed her head in a desperate attempt to soothe her migraine. "Bastard knocked me out cold."

Slowly, she opened her eyes and took in the scenery around her. The world was blurry for a moment or two, but she blinked a few times and the image sharpened. She had no desire to push herself off the floor, but nevertheless, her eyes wandered around the box she was placed in.

Box? That's when it hit her: she was in a box, or a form of it, at least. A cell. She was in a cell— a cage! Locked up like an animal.

"What the hell?" she growled, still stationary from her lain position on the floor on her back.

From beside her, she heard the same voice whisper another sentence to her. "Are you okay? Come on, just say you're okay."

She turned her head, feeling the sharp pressure of pain. The world turned for a split second, but when it stabilized, she saw Damian on the other side of the cell, ducking his head to see her more clearly through the darkened room. Their eyes met, and he studied her complexion with concern.

She frowned. "Damian?" Who the hell would lock us up in a cage, though? Oh— right... never mind. She groaned, having the thought remind her of how she came into the cell in the first place. "Where are we?"

"In a cell."

She rolled her eyes. "The bars around pretty much gave that away, you idiot," she grunted. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly. As her arms slid up her biceps, however, she started to freak out when she noticed them bandaged. "What the—"

"They've been injecting us for as long as they've held us here... I don't know how long that was."

"They?" Elena asked, brows furrowing in confusion. "Injecting— who's doing this to us."

Damian shook his head. "I don't know."

The cell suddenly opened and another body was thrown in. It was bigger than Elena's, though still smaller than Damian's, and, clearly, it was female as the newcomer had hair that fell all the way down to her slim, yet slightly curvy waist.

The figure groaned and grunted as she struggled to push herself up; her wrists were bound to her neck by a thick rope, her ankles bound just as tight. The man who threw her into the cell laughed.

"Any last requests, сука?" (bitch)

"Yeah, loosen the knots and let me go," the siblings heard her choke out. In spite of himself, Damian chuckled slightly at the woman in disbelief, though the tiny smile on his face instantly evaporated the second his eyes locked with hers, and his body froze. Her eyes widened as they stared at his frozen form, then at the smaller one behind him.

"Ayden!" Elena squealed, scrambling around her brother and over to her best friend.